It was a great turn out... but we had some visitors there that we had to kick out since I had a permit to have the space for the entire day. They weren't too happy. Sorry!

We had Meredith - who has a rare kind of dwarfism called Morquio Syndrome that is thinking of getting an CI. Her only challenge is that she had a spinal fusion which means if you have surgery and get intubated, they can't tilt her neck at all.  We were told that Dr. Niparko from JHH has some surgeries as a local... eek!  I can't imagine that!

Of course, Carrie showed up just one day post-op. My BEA manager, Beth Anne called her a brave soul. She didn't come alone :) Her mom drove her and brought her down. I think she was in good spirits and well medicated for her pain management.

I was happy with today's outcome. Let's hope that the next one will be even bigger!!! Here are some photos!

Tom with AB's Directional Signs

Me with AB Balloons!!!

Carrie (blue shirt) with Me and Meredith (purple shirt)

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It's the big day!!! Im not nervous like I was with my first activation.  Just going solo this time. No family, fiancee, etc. Since I already know what to expect and Im also bring my flip video camera for my activation to compare it with my first one. Which i had a lot of sensation on my forehead which causes me to have migraines.  I still get them only when there is a very loud noise.

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I went to programming without my family.... just me and my fiancée. Steve, my audie likes my progress so far... I told him that I heard that sound at AuBonPain that far away.....

He did mapping I think, where he finds the level of tolerance in each decibel. Then about 10 minutes later.. he turns it on... OH MY GOSH! It sounds SOOOO MUCH BETTER! But stronger than a hearing aid.

I was a happy camper! Steve also added a 1X magnet in the implant.. removed the dummy and added the extra magnet since my hair is heavy and still a little swollen. But it was my heavy hair that was knocking it down a lot.

As we left the hospital, it was raining out... I whipped on my rain coat.. and walked outside JHH. Hmm.. what am I hearing now? It was the raindrops on my raincoat... WOW.... My first sounds with the CI! It was so pleasant to hear something so nice like that. Thats a nice way to start my learning experience.

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The first week was rough. Everything I heard did not make any sense. I'm starting to wonder if I made the right decision here. I know it may be too soon. But I'm sorta lost here. I was all excited about activation and can I hear? Well yea but it don't sound right....just a bunch of freaking noise. Come on here.

Second. My implant keeps falling off when my hair is down. Grrrr...emailed my audie this week and he said that he can add another magnet. Whatever that means.

The day after I got activated, I went to Ocean City for the weekend. I heard a few things but they weren't clear. The ocean, the traffic and a loud bang. That's it! What a weekend.

Tomorrow is my 1st programming. I hope things sound better after I leave JHH tomorrow.

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Activation Time! 4 more days! This Friday at 9am. I am sorta nervous and excited at the same time. Can you believe it took me 6 months to get to this point from my very first appointment and now to the activation date? People don't realize that this is a LIFETIME commitment! Its just not going there for programming, it requires you to go back every 6 months to a year and in addition to that, you have listening therapy to practice every day.

The AB website has free lessons that you can download to your iPod, or what ever iSomething. I am already prepared. I downloaded stuff to the iPhone and have it all ready til my audie tells me so.

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I watched the progress of my surgical incision with the help of my fiancée Tom. Since I could not see it well, he took photos for me so I can see how much better it looked.

August 6, 2009 - 2 days post-op. Finally took bandage off.

Whew....the pressure off of my head is finally gone!!

August 8, 2009 - 4 days post-op. Saw the surgeon on

August 7, 2009 and was pleased with progress.

August 16, 2009 - 12 days post-op. Looking better!

August 19, 2009 - 15 days post-op. My first attempt to wear earrings!

August 29th, 2009 - 25 days post-op. Looks so much better!

You can see the scar has flatten out over time. And hair slowly growing back!

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Yup. You heard it right, 8 more days til activation. I'm ready to see what I can hear.

On the other hand. I'm still in very little pain. Some days are good and some are bad. The implanted side has scalp soreness. But it's not even close to the implant. I don't know if anyone else has experienced that before.

I can feel the shape and the actual implant itself. It's sorta wierd to have something underneath my skin. I'm still trying to get over the size of the bump.

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My goodness, I will tell you what a difficult night I had after surgery. Barely slept at all. Could not get comfortable with the pain.

After the 24 hours, I started to feel a lot of relief, the pain reduced in about half and got more color back in my skin. Was able to stay awake longer.

Its 2:40am, I couldn't sleep, I am here at my desk blogging and doing my scrapbook, something quiet and relaxing. In about 12 hours, the bandages will come off and my first attempt to take a shower.

I do experience some jaw pain that my mentor, Abbie Cranmer mentioned to me via email. But no neck pain, I am afraid to move my neck so I haven't been able to move it as much.

Otherwise I feel that I am doing pretty good post-op wise.

I did find out earlier this evening, from one of my surgeons that I had a rough time in the OR. I don't know details yet. I will be getting this information from Dr. Limb and his peers on Friday on my post-op appointment. I do remember that I kept asking for more pain meds during recovery which limited my visit with my family and fiancee.

Oh did I tell you that I got engaged this past Saturday? I dont think I have kept my eyes off of my sparkly engagement ring! Will keep you posted on the recovery part.

Here's a photo of me. I'm not too happy here!

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Post-Op was an challenge for me. I had problems with pain management during the first phase of recovery.

I remember bits and pieces coming out of the OR and the first hour of recovery.

I vaguelly remember seeing my surgeon, Dr.Limb saying that everything went well. Also his sidekick visiting me as well. I was so out of it during that time.

The nurse kept asking me if I was in pain. Scaling 1-10, I was always at 8 for a few hours maybe. But after a few times of waking me up, one of the nurses told me that in order to see my family and fiancée, it needs to be below 5.

Ok. Thanks SmartyPants, I just found a loophole to get outta there faster. The next time she came up to me and asked me what my pain level is, I told her it was between 4-5. Found my ticket home.

During that time, my pre-op nurse, Victoria visited me. I thought it was so sweet of her.


My mom took a picture of this photograph of Victoria that was on one of the walls in the pre-op area. She was so nice to me and I was scared shitless. She kept telling me that she would take care of me. She did.

Alrighty, back to the subject; another nurse comes by and prepares for me to WALK over to the second phase of recovery. And I was a little dizzy at the time. (I'm thinking how in the heck am I gonna get there safely??) So, I gently asked the two nurses if they could bring the chair to me and I'll hop on it. I was still in my sleepy stages during this time.

Got over there and got a spanking brand new nurse. Much nicer than the other one. She brings my family and my fiancée. Then my MOTHER starts snapping away her photos with her phone. I'm like what is SHE doing?!?! From the pictures below, you can obviously see that I was not in any mood to smile.



Told ya!

But here is a lovely photo of my fiancée, Tom.


And another of me and my dad.

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What a day.... this morning, I had a bad dream/nightmare... I dreamt that I was at JHH and there was this really weird people... and then waiting in pre-op area and a woman named Mary Rattell came out and told me that the surgery was cancelled cuz Dr. Limb was sick.

Good news that I had my surgery (performed by Dr.Charles Limb) this morning. I was in recovery for sometime cuz of the pain levels...well bad news the pain meds aren't working for me. I have been dealing with the pain since I woke up at the hospital.

I am at my place, my mom is staying with me for a few days to make sure I am ok. I am just trying to stay busy by watching tv, chatting with friends to kill time on the pain.

We will see how tomorrow goes.

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Yup. 4 more days til surgery date on August 4th. I'm pretty much prepared. Wish me luck you all!!

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I know, I know... it took me a while to sit down and actually type this up, I guess its the lazy summer days.

I got the activation date.....September 4th. Killer part about the date is... the fact is just before the weekend. And I have plans to go to the beach for the weekend. I am sure I am going to be turning heads a lot there and trying to figure out this stuff.

20 more days til surgery. I'm ready to go under the knife and get this over with.

See ya all next time!

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Yeap! I am already posting my surgery date! I got a call this morning from Dr.Limb's office and its been 24 hours since my appointment with Steve...

Drumroll please!

August 4, 2009 at 730am. Means that I have to be at JHH at 530am!

Almost a month away!

I called my mom and she was like thats so soon! Uhhh... yea! Exactly what I wanted. I wanted the surgery before September so I don't miss classes.

I am hoping to get my activation date , 2nd day follow up, 1 week follow up and the 1 month follow up dates within two weeks. I already got in touch with Shawntell, this lovely lady that makes my appointments via e-mail.

I will post an advice list that I gotten from my friend Denise Portis, a fellow blogger and CI'er. Had some great tips that you wouldn't even thought of...

This is not my first sugery, the last one was in August of 2007 for a bone spur in my shoulder. Painful as heck during recovery. Every time I laughed, coughed, sneezed, hic-cupped, or whatever, hurt like heck! I kinda of know what to expect post-operatively since this one was almost sorta of recent.

Keep an eye out for the next post with the activation date!

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Yup. You heard it loud and clear! Last appointment was with Steve Bowditch. He did an aided auditory testing also speech perception test. The aided part, the right ear (which will be the implanted side) shows a drop around 2000Hz from 60-80db.

The speech perception....well I felt that I did terrible cuz I really didn't recognize the words. Only a few of them. CID was at 14% and HINT score was at 18%.

Hopefully within 2 weeks, I'll have my surgery date. Tee-hee! I can't wait!!!

While I was there, I also picked out my processor, color choice and cap color choice. All of ya probably already know by now that I picked Advanced Bionics. Signed and dated my device selection papers. Ordered 2 Silver Processors with Sophista Color caps.

See ya all later! Will post again with surgery date!!!

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Yup, 6 more days til that LAST appointment before surgery! This appointment is with my audiologist, Steve for a new hearing test. This will let me know if my hearing is stable or has declined more since March.

Wish me luck!

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Sorry for not posting... I finally had my appointment with Dr. Limb. Quite a remarkable guy with a great academic background from Harvard and Yale. My parents were pretty impressed with him. He asked a bunch of questions about how I grew up, how I became deaf, etc.

I was almost 3 months premature baby which gave me a few health problems. My hearing loss and diabetes. The doctors (back in 1977) believes that I have a nerve damage (Nerve Deafness).

On the other hand, today...I am trying to find out the real cause of my deafness. I am so curious but there isn't any answers now. Maybe in the sometime future, I will know. The technology and the science is so much better today than 32 years ago.

Back to Dr. Limb; he answered my parents questions and mine too. He said that JHH has never damaged anyone's facial nerve up to this point. He also said that he will shave hair on the implanted side, not much... but he will shave a tiny amount on the non implanted side that way they can keep in track of my facial nerves and make sure they aren't damaged thru the surgery. At the end, he feels comfortable doing my surgery and will see me next time in the operating room....

Surgery date? He said that it can be end of July or sometime in August... I was like REALLY??? I am looking forward to getting this done and hear the trick and treaters for halloween.. one of my favorite holidays. But... it all depends on my last appointment at the end of the month with my audiologist, Steve Bowditch for the auditory testing.

So far, its been going well and smoothly.

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Here is the article on John Hopkins Magazine on Dr. Charles Limb.  Click to read article.

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It was a blast!  I got to meet a lot of people and finally Elizabeth McDonald from AB.  It was so nice to meet someone with a face!

I was right about the burgers, but not CI shaped... But they did have burgers.. wished they had the cheese to go with it...

I got a few freebies, some freebies for Echo and Kaitu, drawstring bags, bubbles.

There was a mixture of age groups, the most common I saw were either kids or senior citizens.  I was told that seniors are the most popular group of CI's.

It was worth going and meeting other people.... but I did get lost.  I deleted my email that had the specific directions to Centennial Park.  I thought it was the main entrance but it was in the East Entrance in a private area for large groups.

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Two  more appointments were made for the audiologist and surgeon.  The receptionist made them on the same day, but the killer part was it was July 24th.  I was like what?  She mentioned that Steve Bowditch (my audiologist) is rather booked up. 

She also asked me if I want to be on a cancellation list for Steve's appointments.  I was like sure, why not, it wouldn't hurt.

I got the name of the surgeon.  Dr. Charles Limb.

Apparently the JHH Listening Center website is going under construction, most of the links don't work right now.... :(

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Today was the day for initial consultation. My parents and fiancée went with me this morning.

Meeting Steve Bowditch was a pleasure. I think he reassured my family by answering their questions. My dad had a lot which surprised me cuz I didn't think he would be interested in the process of me getting a CI.

Two more appointments, one with Steve and the other with the surgeon. Then the surgery date will be scheduled.

Reality is coming! I am very eager to get the process moving forward. And today was the first step! Woo hoo!

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